Vote

The book that I think should be included in the next rendition of this course is My Most Excellent Year. The reason for this decision is because I thought the group did the best job in presenting their book. The group was very thorough and each member gave a very good reason why they thought the book should be included in the next class. The book sounds like it was a really fun book to read and it also sounds like it has the potential to create many good discussions. I also thought the group did very well because they seemed to have everything planned out really well for their presentation. If I were to take this class again I think I would really enjoy reading this novel and discussing it. My Most Excellent Year seems like it involves some things that are in society such as homosexuality and coming out. It sounds like people were very accepting when Augie came out and told people he was gay.

The novel sounds similar to some of the books that we read this semester that I thought were really good, such as My Year of Meats, which I really liked. I think it sounds like this novel would be a good way to start out the semester and it could potentially replace My Year of Meats. I really enjoy novels that switch the point of view, I find these types of novels more interesting then just following one point of view. My choice for the next time this class is offered is My Most Excellent Year. I personally want to read this book now and from what the group said during their presentation is sounds like this would be a great novel to include in this class.

Project Mayhem

Project Mayhem uses New York City's financial district as the nexus of their frustration because Tyler Durden's idea is that if the financial district is destroyed then all the credit history will also be destroyed. My thinking is that Tyler had some credit issues and maybe he did not have a very good credit history so rather than working on fixing the issues on his history, why not just destroy the financial district so he can start fresh. I guess for someone who has serious mental problems such as Tyler, this idea of destroying the financial district is probably the best solution to the problem.

I would imagine that after 9/11 a lot of people had issues with this movie for the reason that Tyler is involved in a terrorist group that goes around New York causing destruction to businesses. I think that the way the buildings in the financial district blew up was very similar to how the twin towers fell after being struck by the planes. There were so many people that perished in the 9/11 attacks that I could see their families and loved ones getting upset about this movie. The only thing I don't completely understand is that this movie came out two years before 9/11 happen so I find it a bit odd that people had issues with this movie. I guess it might be due to the fact that there was a terrorist group involved in the destruction of the financial district and a terrorist group was the direct cause of the 9/11 attacks. It could be that I do not completely understand why people would be so upset about this movie after 9/11 because I was a 15 year-old in high school and it did not affect me as much as is did others. It could also be that I did not see this movie until now so maybe if I would have seen it shortly after or before 9/11 occurred I may have viewed this movie differently.

In the Shadow of no Towers class discussion

I enjoyed the class discussion on In the Shadow of no Towers. I learned more after discussing it such as the the sections that were about comic strips that were some of the first comics to be published. I haven't ever really gotten into comics except for Calvin and Hobbs so I had no clue who these people in the comics were. I'm not sure if it is because when those comics were popular I was not born yet or I was very little. I think graphic novels are interesting since they make you work differently then other novels. I heard a lot of people in class mention about the work that this particular graphic novel required from the reader in order to understand. I was not sure if it was just me and the fact that I do not really read graphic novels, but it seemed as though there were several other people who felt that they were required to piece together the sections in order for it to make sense.

I thought it was fun reading this graphic novel, but I do not think I will be reading any graphic novels anytime soon. I like being able to understand what it is that I am reading and there were several times that I was completely confused, like the part where the author talks about being in different places when the planes hit the towers. That whole part threw me off and I was not sure what was true. It helped me a little after the discussion in class to understand that maybe because of all the chaos going on the author was also unsure about his exact location when the tragedy struck. I found that confusing still, but it helped me to understand why the confusion may have been there in the first place.

In the Shadow of no Towers

I have never read a graphic novel before, but I am really enjoying reading In The Shadows of no Towers. I think it gives you a little bit of a different perspective about 9/11. When it happened I read about it everytime I got on the internet, read the newspaper or in magazines. The tragic event of 9/11 was all over the media, but I had never really experienced it in this sort of a perspective. I can sense the fear in the characters and the panic when they are trying to find their daughter fearing that she had parished in the attack. I also think the way that there are drawings to go along with the text it allows you to not only read about what happened but you get to follow along with the drawings of the towers and the chaos that followed.

I had a little bit of a hard time reading the first part of the novel just because things are a bit scattered so I had difficulties trying to figure out which section to read next. I thought it jumped around a bit in the locations of the comics so I had to slow down and make sure I was following the right one and not jumping around from one to another. Once I figured it out it went a little smoother but there were times when I wasn't quite sure where I was suppose to go next to read since they were kind of jumbled together in places. Despite this confusion I did enjoy the novel and look forward to finishing it and I think I will probably re-read it since I think I missed some things in the first section.

Fight Club

I had never seen the movie Fight Club prior to watching it in class and I thought it was a pretty good movie. I was really confused at first when the movie revealed that Edward Norton was Tyler Durden, I had no idea that was going to happen. I thought it was interesting that Edward Norton finds comfort in joining support groups for illnesses in which he did not have in order to see what real suffering was like. I thought it was weird how his doctor pretty much blew Edward Norton off like his problem was nothing, but obviously as we saw he had some serious mental issues. I was pretty surprised that a person like Edward could create Project Mayhem, it was obvious he was unhappy in life, but I never would have imagined that he could come up with such an idea to destroy New York City's financial district and that even people who were part of the police department were part of his club and were involved in Project Mayhem.

I did not really understand the ending and why when Edward shot himself Tyler disappeared, that was a little strange to me and I thought if Edward shot himsef and Tyler disappeared that would mean that Edward was dead. I was also puzzled by the ending when Edward. was standing with Marla in the building and they were watching the financial district buildings blow up. I am curious to know what happened to Edward and Marla, Edward pretty much gave himself away to the police, but since a majority of the police force was involved in Project Mayhem it makes me question whether or not he would even be arrested when all the buildings were destroyed. After seeing the movie I would like to read to the book just to see how similar they are and what happens in the book.

Candy

My group for the final project decided to read the book entitled Candy and I would have to say it is the best book I have ever read. The book reminded me of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This is because the main characters are similar. Like Oscar, Joe who is the main character of Candy meets this girl named Candy who he falls madly in love with only to find out she is a prositute and is addicted to drugs which she gets from her pimp. Joe quickly finds out that Candy's pimp is a very large intimidating man who likes to beat his women when they don't do what he wants them to do. This reminds me of Oscar because he too falls in love with women who get beaten by the men the are involved with. Both Oscar and Joe are naive with women as well, it took Joe awhile before he realized that Candy was a prostitute and that she was addicted to drugs, even though there were signs that gave away Candy's drug use and prostitution he still didn't really realize that this was going on.

The ending of this book was excellent, the author left the ending somewhat open, he gave you just enough information to conclude the novel, but he didn't completely tell you everything that happened to the characters maybe to allow the reader to use their imagination to decide for themselves what should happen to Candy and Joe. He really focused on addictions quite a lot in this book, which I found very interesting since addiction is in everyday life and a lot of times you dont' actually notice it. For instance, Joe the main character is in a band and is addicted to music and playing his guitar where Candy is addicted to drugs which has cause her to become addicted to prositution in order to feed her drug habit. It was obvious to me with Candy's addictions but I didn't think of Joe's interest in music as a addiction until I read the interview with the author at the back of the book. Overall I thought this was an excellent book and would strongly recommend it.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The beginning of the book was a real struggle. I had a hard time getting into it and the language barrier was difficult for me to get past. I spent a lot of time looking up Spanish words when I first started reading. There were many words that I could not find, so eventually I just gave up on the words and kept reading. I realized the book was better when I wasn't trying to find out the meaning of the Spanish words. Although the book was depressing I actually really liked it and I am thinking that when I have time I will go back and read the book again. Once I finished the book I was relieved to be done, but at the same time I felt there was some closure. We knew exactly what happened to Oscar and the other characters in the book.

I felt horrible for Oscar through the entire book, it seemed as though no matter what he did something bad was always bound to happen to him. I was glad to find out that he was able to get what he wanted most out of life, to have sex with a woman, and that it was with someone he really cared about. I felt bad for him when he would make friends with these beautiful women and they would end up dating these horrible guys that would beat them and treat them like dirt when there is this really nice guy that just wants to fall in love and care for his woman. It saddened me that he was killed over a woman, I wish he would have just taken her back to America with him and they could have lived happily ever after. Even though it would have been nice to see Oscar be able to live his life out with a woman I was okay with how the book ended. I really enjoyed this book and I hope I get a chance to sit down and read it again because I know that there are so many things I missed.

My Year of Meats

Upon finishing the book My Year of Meats I was excited for Akiko and her new life without her horrible husband and I was also excited for Jane who was finally able to tell the world about DES and how harmful it is. Even though there were some exciting things happening in the end of the book I still felt as though the book did not end with a "finished" feeling.

The end of the book did not feel finished as though the author was expecting to write a sequal. I personally like books that have and ending that gives you a little taste of what the characters lives are like, but it doesn't give you the details. For instance, I want to know what happens with Jane and Sloan, I know they mention something about Jane and Sloan adopting a child, but does that mean that they will stay together, maybe get married and live together even though Sloan is always on the road touring with his band? I also want to know what happenend to John, I know he ended up not being successful because of Jane's documentary, but what does he end up doin? I would also like to know how John reacted to the letter that Akiko sent him and whether or not he will get a clue and start treating women better or if he doesn't learn from his mistakes and continues treating women badly.

Overall I though this was a really good book and I really liked how I was able to kind of get into the personal thouhgts of the characters like Jane who feels as though she has to be strong around everyone, but she lets herself feel more emotional when she is by herself and nobody can see her feelings. As for the ending, I am sure the author had a purpose in ending the book the way she did, but I would have preferred an ending that pretty much spells everything out for you with no questions about where the characters end up and what happens to them.

Alternate Ending to Happinnes

Edwin had just managed to shovel his way through the first stack of manuscripts when his pager went off. It was that call he had been waiting for, it was May, she wanting to meet for coffee and to catch up. Edwin eagerly left the office where he entered the smog filled air and took a deep breath enjoying the feeling of life how it is supposed to be, unhappy and miserable.

Edwin and May met at a coffee shop where they embraced in a hug and Edwin was mesmerized by the bright red crayola of May's lips which he had missed very much. Edwin and May sat down at a table with their coffee where they began talking about everything they had been through in the past couple of months. May learned of Edwin's adventures and Edwin learned of May's experiences in a world of Happiness.

After spending several hours in the coffee shop Edwin and May returned to her apartment where she and Edwin spent the evening in each others arms planning the rest of their lives together. Finally May had Edwin all to herself and she didn't have to worry about competing with Jenni anymore. Edwin was all hers and they would be happy together forever.

Self Help Books

My opinion on self-help books is that they can be a useful material for certain people. I don't think that all people benefit from self-help books only because I think in order to quite something such as smoking or loose weight some individuals need more than a book telling them what to do in order to accomplish their goal. It is easy to read about diets and how to eat right and what exercises do what, but the words on the page may not actually convince the reader to eat differently or exercise. An example is with Edwin in Happiness, he read the part in the manuscript about how to quite smoking and he did what it told him to do and he was disgusted by holding the cigarette water in his mouth but once he spit the water out and rinsed his mouth he was off to find more cigarettes.

On the other hand some people may benefit from what Edwin and done and they may be totally grossed out and never smoke again. The same goes for someone trying to loose weight and be healthy, just by reading about what foods to eat and what exercises they need to do they are able to change their eating habits and exercise on a regular basis resulting in them accomplishing their goal of loosing weight and leading a healthier lifestyle. An example is the character Jenni in Happiness, she is able to do new exercises and change her life based upon things she has read. Jenni is always reading magazines to find out the latest and greatest exercises and ways to change the furniture in the house in order to create positive energy. I think that there are many people out there like Jenni that are able to change the way they do things from what the read or hear from others.